1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to an electromechanical (MEMS) device which utilizes a working fluid and a process of making the same. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a MEMS device which utilizes a working fluid having a size no greater than about 10 microns wherein the working fluid is a high pressure liquid or a supercritical fluid and a process of making a MEMS device which involves introducing a high pressure liquid or a supercritical fluid therein.
2. Background of the Prior Art
The development of MEMS devices has significantly advanced in recent years. This development corresponds to the extensive growth in the use of integrated circuits involving semiconductor devices. Although the development of MEMS devices has rapidly developed in recent years, advances in MEMS devices requiring the utilization of a working fluid has been slower. This is because of problems associated with the inability of the working fluid to traverse through openings provided in the MEMS device.
The aforementioned problems have become more pronounced with the development of MEMS of ever decreasing size. Obviously, as newly developed integrated circuits become smaller and smaller, MEMS devices, employed in applications involving integrated circuits, have been required to correspondingly decrease in size. Although the development of MEMS devices of smaller and smaller size has continued apace, as evidenced by such developments as those embodied in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,164,933 and 6,227,809, which describe micropumps, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,323,999, directed to a micro-sized gas valve, a major deterrent to this development is the constraint provided by the inability of working fluids to flow in micron-sized and even nanometer-sized devices. This is because, as those skilled in the art are aware, of the inability of working fluids to penetrate into such tiny-sized spaces. This, in turn, is the result of the relatively high surface tension of most working fluids. That is, the higher the surface tension of a fluid, the more difficult it is for that fluid to traverse through a very small sized opening.
The technical literature has addressed this problem in the development of MEMS devices. Burger et al., 14th IEEE Inter. Conf. Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, 418-421 (January, 2001) describes a cryogenic micromachined cooler suitable for cooling from ambient temperature to 169xc2x0 K. and below. The working fluid in this MEMS cooler device is ethylene which is present as a liquid and a gas. The MEMS cooler, however, is attached to a source of ethylene and the system is required to be sealed off in order to maintain specific thermodynamic conditions necessary to retain ethylene under conditions required for cryogenic operation.
Although this cryogenic MEMS machine represents an improvement in MEMS heat exchange technology, it does not provide the requisite mobility, requiring as it does the presence at all times of a source of fresh working fluid, necessary to extend the utility of MEMS devices requiring a working fluid to very small sized devices.
It is thus apparent that there is a significant need in the art for a new MEMS device which utilizes a working fluid, which need not be tethered to a source of the working fluid, having a low enough surface tension so that it can be used in the ever smaller sizes required of newly developed MEMS devices.
A new MEMS device requiring the use of a working fluid and a method of producing the same has now been developed which is characterized by the use of a working fluid having very low surface tension such that the MEMS device may be as small as nanometer-sized. The MEMS device provided with a working fluid, although capable of flowing through all openings provided in the MEMS device, is also characterized by the self contained nature of the working fluid. That is, the MEMS device is unattached to any working fluid source, representing as it does a true closed loop system, wherein the working fluid provides the same operability associated with MEMS devices of the prior art which require an appended working fluid source.
In accordance with the present invention a microsized MEMS device which utilizes a working fluid is provided. The working fluid is a high pressure liquid or a supercritical fluid. The MEMS device is provided with a connecting device which not only acts to permit introduction of the working fluid under thermodynamic conditions consistent with the maintenance of the fluid in the liquid or supercritical state but which maintains the fluid under those conditions even after removal of those thermodynamic conditions.
In further accordance with the present invention a process of providing a MEMS device having a size no greater than about 10 microns utilizing a working fluid is provided. In this process a high pressure liquid or a supercritical fluid is introduced into the micron-sized MEMS device utilizing a working fluid under thermodynamic conditions consistent with the maintenance of the working fluid in the liquid or supercritical state. High pressure liquid or supercritical fluid is introduced into the MEMS device until the pressure of the liquid or supercritical fluid in the MEMS device reaches the pressure of the liquid or supercritical fluid source. Thereupon, a device provided in the MEMS device closes and seals the working fluid in the MEMS device from the source, trapping the working fluid therein. The thermodynamic conditions are thereupon changed to ambient. However, the working fluid in the MEMS device remains in the liquid or supercritical state.